How do you feel about autistic people?

[Joccaren]

Well. That's treatment of autistic people I've not run into, thankfully.

In terms of insult, I NEVER see autistic used. Its too many syllables and letters. Au-tis-tic. Funky to spell, annoying to say. Retard is used far more often, simply because its easier. The whole autism thing I've only seen used IRL as a questioning insult of someone who behaves very, very peculiarly - to put things lightly.

In terms of people, someone reasonably close to me is autistic. He hasn't had it easy, though he hasn't been abused either. More, he was taken advantage of by other children at the school he went to, and ended up doing a lot of stupid things like eating a whole packet of laxatives on a dare, because you could make him do pretty much anything. Wasn't treated well.
Take him out of school, and the teenage way of things there, and he's better. Doesn't really get a lot of flak from people, its just he's fairly... shy is probably the best way to put it, and still does stupid things when at parties - though that's not too uncommon among teenagers.

Have I ever seen him as not human? No. I've seen him as different, though that's in the same way I see everyone who is more sports/athletics oriented as different. As a gamer and IT/Maths/Physics/Chem nerd, its kind of my antithesis.

Same goes for anyone with any kind of disability I see. They're people. They've got their problems, but so do we all. What matters isn't that we have them, but how we deal with them. Most people I know of think the same.
Granted, most people I know aren't your average person, having a generally higher level of education, as well as a higher level of interest in the IT/gaming side of things, but in my local main city, they have the poor and disabled selling newspapers on the streets as a kind of mercy job. No-one that I've seen abuses them. More often, people just take a break and talk to them for a bit instead.

So, in general I haven't seen the kind of abuse of autistic people you mention at all, though I don't doubt it happens. Either way, for what I think, people are people. Some people are dicks, others may as well be saints. You can't judge that based on how someone looks or sounds, or how much or little they understand. You can only judge them based on their actions. If someone's nice, I'll treat them nicely. If someone's a dick, I'll try to avoid them. There's nothing more to it than that.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Who knows what the fuck the diagnosis is anymore, it's so bloody vague. First it's 'You've got Asperger', than it's 'Oh wait, you actually have PDD-NOS', now it's Autistic Spectrum Disorder, tomorrow... who knows.

The Shadow DSM V knows.

And speaking of the DSM V, I think they've gone ahead with identifying specific subtypes of ASD... which will give the self-diagnosers new acronyms to claim for themselves.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Autism, particularly those very far down the rabbit hole so to speak, fit in the uncanny valley of human interaction. They look and act human, but something is off.

You know what's the worst of that? A lot of us are very, very aware of that fact. Yet we can't do anything about it. Yes, with training and insight we can mitigate some of the effects but especially when you get close to us there'll always be something there.

And I, at least, get absolutely driven mad by it.

 

[the_dramatica]

High functioning(adhd, ass burgers) people are the ones that are usually the ones you would see in lobbies, and they don't care about words being thrown around, although sometimes you'll find the ones blessed with more illness sensitive. Sometimes they use the words themselves since they don't perceive high functioning autism as social retardation. Keep in mind the word retard itself means resilient, such as flame retardant, and the word retard on it's own has no literal value.

As for classical autism, I found it unpleasant to see them taken around like dogs. Once, one of them was in our lunch room, he really wanted a bagel and he was screaming for it but they had him on a leash and they just dragged him away. It seems inhuman but like you said, once you consider tax and pay reasons you can't expect anybody to sell their soul and career and become the autism whisperer. At least they have their little communities where they can be energetic together.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Being one myself (well, diagnosed with some symptoms from the autistic spectrum. Make of that what you will), I'd say they're people like everyone else. I don't know where you come from that they treat people with some mental abnormalities like crazy people, but it's not like that where I live. Modesty aside, me being rather a lot cleverer than most people and as a result being quite able to hide my symptoms, it might be that I've just not been exposed to insults, but all told I'd say that other than in certain cesspits of the internet, insulting autistic people is rather rare.

Personally, I'm okay with using terms like 'autistic' and 'retarded' (or 'gay' and 'fag') as insults (insofar as I'm okay with using anything as an insult, that is), as most people using them usually don't literally interpret the term. If someone were to call me autistic I'd say: "yes, and?".

Frankly I'm more annoyed by people claiming they shouldn't be used as swearwords, mostly because they generally have never met a 'retard' or 'autist' and have no idea who they are supposedly defending and whether or not these people actually want or need it.

I'm 'autistic' and my brother is what would generally be considered a 'retard'. Neither of us cares. Neither of us needs defending on that front.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Another person with autism spectrum disorder here. Threated diffirently even before doctors figured it out (I was 20 or so when it happend). Might be because of that but eh, I don't mind to be kept apart from the rest. I now go to a college anyway where they look specifically at your strongpoints which helps alot.

Where I have grown up you'll gett either bullied for it or people think its bull. I know from myself that I have a rather colorfull vocubolary but using autism or sexual preferences as an insult goes too far for me.

Oh yeah, and yanks, stop calling mentally disabled children retards, that's a bit much.

Not only americans do that I'm afraid.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Keep in mind the word retard itself means resilient, such as flame retardant, and the word retard on it's own has no literal value.

No, 'retard' means 'delay'(slow) or 'hold back'(inhibit). It's actually a useful word in engineering... and no, not in sense that some physics students use it to describe engineering students.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

stop calling mentally disabled children retards

Stop call people with intellectual disabilities 'mentally disabled'.

Unless you actually mean kids with severe mental health issues, in which case, please continue.

 

[soren7550]

Only had to deal with one person that I know has some form of autism (Asperger's), and I have a seething, burning hatred for them. Tends to happen when you deal with someone for damn near 23 years, and they have everything blow up in their face and just got nothing but shit going their way regardless of their actions. Doesn't help that when dealing with most anyone you get that feeling of wanting to throw up and/or running and hiding in a corner being a better option. But when that one person that doesn't make you feel that comes into your life and you give them your all, you'd think it'd turn out alright, but nope. That's gotta blow up in your face as well, leaving you alone with just that thing you have a seething hatred for, making one wish for death every waking moment of the day, all the while unable to understand what they've done wrong.

Life's a ***** like that.

 

[JoJo]

Man, whenever one of these threads come along it suddenly seems like half The Escapist has autism.

I just hate this aspect of society that insists on constantly diagnosing people on every little thing. If high functioning autistics can function in normal society and are virtually indistinguishable from "normal" people, then why diagnose them at all? All it does is give them a title to stick to and an excuse for their faults. "Oh, I can't do this I'm autistic." rather than thinking "I will learn to do this."

It just sickens me all of this constant diagnosis of people who aren't "normal." Well what the heck is "normal" anyway? There is no normal. Every single person is different and has their own flaws and strengths so the logical conclusion of this diagnosis obsession is that every single person is grouped into their own "medical" category and is defined. Once someone is defined, it's that much harder for them to change in any way to better themselves, because they can always fall back on their "condition" as an excuse.

EDIT: It leads to this thinking where "I think this way because I'm, X" when really it's "I'm X because I think this way."

If you were diagnosed with autism and you use it as an excuse, you have my utter contempt. You should always try to better yourself and never make excuses, no matter how many "doctors" say they're valid.

I say get rid of all these bloody titles. Get rid of "autistic" get rid of "normal" get rid of "mentally ill" and we'll all just be individuals!

Well, real actual autism (not the self-diagnosed Tumblr kind) isn't really a 'little thing', it colours every single social interaction we'll ever have. Learning to 'pass' as a neurotypical by imitation and acting is common, especially in girls and high-functioning adults of both genders, but it doesn't mean we are neurotypical. I can fake being normal for a job interview or a first meeting with someone but oddities will inevitably appear as time goes on. Put it this way, even the mildest autism is far more of an impediment than colour vision deficiency but you won't see many people arguing we should stop bothering to recognise that exists.

I'm sure some people use their diagnosis as excuses as people tend to do, with the right attitude however they can also be a great tool. Knowing what common autistic symptoms are has helped me recognise strengths and weaknesses that I have in regards to those and in turn how to better myself. More absract symptoms like mind blindness are surprisingly difficult to see in yourself without outside help since you can never truly put yourself into someone else's head to see how they think.

 

[Aesir23]

High functioning(adhd, ass burgers) people are the ones that are usually the ones you would see in lobbies, and they don't care about words being thrown around, although sometimes you'll find the ones blessed with more illness sensitive. Sometimes they use the words themselves since they don't perceive high functioning autism as social retardation. Keep in mind the word retard itself means resilient, such as flame retardant, and the word retard on it's own has no literal value.

As for classical autism, I found it unpleasant to see them taken around like dogs. Once, one of them was in our lunch room, he really wanted a bagel and he was screaming for it but they had him on a leash and they just dragged him away. It seems inhuman but like you said, once you consider tax and pay reasons you can't expect anybody to sell their soul and career and become the autism whisperer. At least they have their little communities where they can be energetic together.

I just wanted to point out that ADHD is not a high functioning form of autism. People with autism can also have ADHD and people with ADHD but not autism can have autism-like behaviours but that's about it as far as I'm aware.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Well to be quite frank here,
while I agree with some of the points about the education system, from first hand experience of volunteering in a "special needs" class (where they usually don't JUST have autistic/aspie kids and mostly those kids that are autistic/aspie also have other developmental disorders) here in so cal they are actually NOT allowed to use any amount of force on the kids (my mother is currently "under investigation" from a bullshit claim that someone who doesn't like her made that she supposedly hit her one on one kid when she didn't and this is the second time this same person has made this claim but in a class full of other adults no one else saw this happen including 3 people who were looking her direction....strange huh?). Like they aren't even allowed to do anything that can be construed as force or hitting them. And from experience with my brother who IS autistic, he never had to go to a special class. He just had a learning plan for the amount of work that he could reasonably do (like instead of having to write things out because he has a lot of trouble writing he could type things out instead). I mean he was still bullied because kids are assholes and the teachers bullied him too causing us to pull him out to do independent learning (which meant he'd meet once a week with a teacher and get assignments and do them at home then go in turn them in and discuss them and learn things at his pace for like a few hours).

Anyway though, I feel bad about how people generally treat them. Because people are shits. And when they don't understand something (which is most mental diseases/disorders/disabilities and learning disabilities) they resort to making the person with whatever it is feel like shit and out of place so they can feel superior and less uncomfortable about it. But as I live with an autistic person and am their caregiver I don't feel one way or the other about the person themselves. Unless they definitely understand something and purposefully continue to break the rules and be safety risks (like the asshat I worked Halloween Haunt with a few years ago). Then I start thinking of them the same way as a non autistic person. As an asshole. But since I mentioned I live with an autistic person (and have for 26 years now) I tend to see autistic people as "normal" and treat them as such (though I do tread more carefully about them with specific things depending on the person and their ticks and triggers and such).

And people use autistic and aspie as derogatory terms online? I've actually never heard/seen that happen. I must be very lucky. And that makes me severely angry.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

If we?re counting fictional characters, I?d say Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory is probably the most documented person in the entire world on autism (albeit, a poor sitcom representation of high-functioning autistics) and even if we?re not, there are probably far more (in)famous autists worldwide than ?Chris-chan? (of whom I know most about from Encyclopaedia Dramatica, unfortunately). I don?t know if perspectives are different in US to the UK (where I live).

Anyway, yeah, it does kind of touch a nerve when I hear people jokily insult My Little Pony or Sonic the Hedgehog fans as ?Aspie?, or people that just happen to be a bit socially awkward or have weird interests as ?pretty autistic? (like how some people, myself included, dislike it when people claim to be ?so OCD? because they like to alphabetize their CDs or something).

I had a secondary school acquaintance of whom I suspected of being somewhere on the autism spectrum, because it often was somewhat difficult to talk to him due to his habit of going off on tangents about shows or other things only he had consumed and continuing to talk about it even when I told him that I?d never watched/read it (like, I remember he was a big fan of Father Ted, and he began telling me all about it in one lesson of R.S., but I couldn?t really offer any input because I hadn?t seen it, but he kept telling me about all the hilarious moments from various episodes he?d seen). Then again, I do that from time to time, and one of his closest friends from childhood had told me his mother was very protective of him, so there could be other factors to his ?weirdness?.

I also had a friend with ADHD (since some of the symptoms can overlap or otherwise be confused for each other, leading to instances of misdiagnosis) in my first year of my secondary school. He appeared to take to me very quickly, even though I never really had many friends myself, but he was generally fun to be around. He just had a bad temper, got jealous of my other friend for ?trying to stop him being friends with me?, and I had to remind him to take his medication in case he got too hyper and started acting up in class. Eventually, I kind of just drifted out of friendship with him, because it was just hard to be friends with him. I don?t know if it was because of his disorder or his personality, but? he was just too confrontational, and we had very little in common anyway.

Finally, there?s a girl in sixth-form who actually has been diagnosed with autism, who hangs around with this other autistic boy who likes to draw My Little Pony pictures. Some of the people I hang around with in my study pod say the former?s annoying, but I haven?t really had any interaction with her outside of her opening our study pod door, screaming something, and then running out. I thought it was strange, but just put it down to a dare or something. I?ve done much stranger stuff in sixth-form.

Autism isn?t some sacred cow in comedy, though, just like race or sexuality isn?t. Nothing is. It?s only when you target certain people because of that perceived ?weakness? (especially when they can?t defend themselves, like when Frankie Boyle took the mickey out of Katie Price?s disabled son a while ago just to get at her) that it crosses the line into? I dunno, I wouldn?t call it ?hate speech?, but? basically, it goes from being a joke to a flat-out insult.

As for me personally, the sum total of my knowledge on the autism spectrum is that of my mother?s friend?s twelve (or so)-year-old son (who is severely autistic, mentally handicapped, and can be violent; I?ve never met him personally, though, and he?s at a special needs boarding school on weekdays), a library book on the medical community?s perception of girls with Asperger?s syndrome in a wider societal context, TV, and my aforementioned acquaintance. Essentially, I?m going to say something probably many other people have said that can applied to a wide range of minority demographics: you shouldn?t stereotype people based on the personality or actions of the few ?stand-outs? and generalize them across the board.

 

[Xan Krieger]

As an autistic person I find the worst people are neurotypical. They're arrogant, insulting, and just downright unpleasant. I go out of my way to help my friends with WHATEVER they need, from fixing computers to fixing a house that used to have 15 cats living in it (you could smell it before you opened the door). Whenever I hear someone call someone autistic I wonder why, it's saying that person had an advantage over you.

 

[NordicWarrior]

I work in a care home for autistic people, and can honestly say they are annoying as shit. I don't know how things are in America, but at our place they are treated extremely well, being cooked for, cleaned up after and taken out every day to do things they enjoy. In response, they make no effort to help, often attack us and are generally anti-social...because they're autistic!

I'm sure people who know autistic people in their personal lives can see past their autism to them as people, but as someone who is paid to take care of them, I can't. I'll do my job to the best of my ability and care for them, but since they seriously piss me off I will never care about them.

Also, just to be clear, the people I'm talking about aren't people in the general population (e.g. who go to school/work with everyone else) and have autism/Aspergers, they're profound cases, often with no ability to speak/understand speech or communicate otherwise.

I have done similar jobs here in America. I have been a Teacher's Aide, a 1:1 aide, and a Behavior Technician in a school for individuals with autism.

I feel the exact opposite as you.

I loved the kids I worked with. I was assigned to students with severely challenging behaviors and it never bothered me. I wore body armor when I worked with some kids. I have been bitten, scratched, hair pulled out and kicked. When the burst of behaviors was over, I shook it off and went back to work with individuals I loved working with.

 

[NiPah]

As someone with Asperger's (diagnosed by a professional, thank you very much, and back before anyone knew what it was).

Asperger's isn't really a diagnosis anymore though. I think now it's Autistic Spectrum Disorder with varying levels of severity.

I looked a bit online and was unable to find an answer so I thought I'd ask it here:

When the DSM changes, does it have any affect on previous diagnosis if the previous diagnosis does not exist or the criteria changes?
I would imagine there is a set guideline for when this occurs (especially since the DSM5 replaced the DSM4TR) but yeah, couldn't find it.
(I'm just asking you because you commented on this and thought you might know)

 

[moggett88]

I work in a care home for autistic people, and can honestly say they are annoying as shit. I don't know how things are in America, but at our place they are treated extremely well, being cooked for, cleaned up after and taken out every day to do things they enjoy. In response, they make no effort to help, often attack us and are generally anti-social...because they're autistic!

I'm sure people who know autistic people in their personal lives can see past their autism to them as people, but as someone who is paid to take care of them, I can't. I'll do my job to the best of my ability and care for them, but since they seriously piss me off I will never care about them.

Also, just to be clear, the people I'm talking about aren't people in the general population (e.g. who go to school/work with everyone else) and have autism/Aspergers, they're profound cases, often with no ability to speak/understand speech or communicate otherwise.

I have done similar jobs here in America. I have been a Teacher's Aide, a 1:1 aide, and a Behavior Technician in a school for individuals with autism.

I feel the exact opposite as you.

I loved the kids I worked with. I was assigned to students with severely challenging behaviors and it never bothered me. I wore body armor when I worked with some kids. I have been bitten, scratched, hair pulled out and kicked. When the burst of behaviors was over, I shook it off and went back to work with individuals I loved working with.

Well...good for you I guess. It's a job that you need to be passionate about to stick with, and unfortunately I don't have that passion.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

When the DSM changes, does it have any affect on previous diagnosis if the previous diagnosis does not exist or the criteria changes?

In terms of treatment and management? If treatment/management plans are working they tend to be left as is, regardless of the official diagnosis. What can be problematic for people accessing mental health services is if their payment provider requires them to have an 'on the books' (DSM or ICD code) diagnosis.

I would imagine there is a set guideline for when this occurs (especially since the DSM5 replaced the DSM4TR) but yeah, couldn't find it.

If you're looking for broadly sketched outlines, dsm5.org has a bunch of fact sheets. Anything more detailed is often put behind pay- and/or membership-walls as they are aimed specifically at practitioners, researchers and post-graduate level students.

 

[Johnny Impact]

I feel sad. I wish we understood how best to communicate, medicate, and help them adapt to society. They should have more of a chance at -- I don't want to use the phrase "a normal life," but I think you know what I mean.

In my mind, people who are afraid of autism or use it as an insult aren't part of OP's question. If you intended to ask about those people, OP, my answer is, They suck.

 

[iLikeHippos]

In all honesty, it all depends what person you meet with autism to define how you feel about them, rather than how you feel about people with autism in general. We are as varied as you would expect all people to be; some are barely affected, and others have insane amounts of trouble.

When I was 13-15 years old, I went to a special class that had small classes for autistic kids and other... mental disabilities, as people call it. Some kids, like myself, could remain quite social and apt to an extensive degree, while others had as much social refinement as... well, a crazy person, to be honest!
To judge people with autism as a singular strawman being doesn't make me mad, even if I'd try my hardest; rather, it just makes me chortle. What a vain attempt of understanding others.